


Chemistry

by SeveralSmallHedgehogs



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, Multi, Party, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, pining Barry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-16
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2019-05-07 23:23:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14681622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeveralSmallHedgehogs/pseuds/SeveralSmallHedgehogs
Summary: Barry's had something like a crush on Lup for a while now, but she's way out of his league. And Lup's not sure what to make of the nerd who keeps popping up on her radar, but something tells her there's more to him than thick glasses and no fashion sense. Maybe that's why she can't help trying to get to know him. They quickly become friends, but it feels like there's something more here...(Barry likes Lup, Lup's curious about Barry, and somewhere in the background, Magnus and Julia are adorable and Taako's trying to seduce a transfer student)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a tumblr post I can't find now with a High School AU of Lup as president of the Soccer team

When Lup dropped her backpack on the floor next to him, Barry jumped so hard his knees hit the bottom of his desk. The impact made his book slide off the desk, and it hit the floor with an echoing _thud._ All conversation in the classroom ceased for a second as people looked around for the source of the noise, but this was college. People dropping books was no longer something that most people would laugh at. One or two people giggled, and then everyone went on with their conversations.

Barry snuck a glance over at Lup and saw that, to his relief, that she had also gone back to talking with her twin brother, Taako, who sat on her other side. Barry leaned over his desk to try and retrieve his book, but it was just out of reach. After a couple of attempts, he sighed and sat back up, preparing to slide out of his desk to get it.

Before he could, though, Lup said, “I got you, Barold,” and leaned down to pick up the book with one hand. She set it on his desk without glancing at him and without even breaking her conversation with her brother. Barry managed a “thank you” that she probably didn’t even hear. Class started soon after that, and he got through the rest of it without making even more of a fool of himself. When the professor finally dismissed them—a half hour early, since it was the first day of classes—Barry threw all his stuff into his backpack and made a break for the door.

 

Barry had had something like a crush on Lup since his first year at this school. He’d met her in one of those First-Year Intro classes that you had to take that were supposed to get you used to taking college classes. It had been some class about String Theory taught by a Physics professor who seemed overly excited to be teaching this class. But Barry had breezed right through it; he’d come to this school with several college credits already under his belt, so a 101 was nothing he couldn’t handle.

But he didn’t often do as well in classes with Lup in them. He was liable to get distracted whenever he saw her tuck her hair behind her ear, or lean closer to her notebook to write something down, and then he missed fifteen minutes of lecture time because he couldn’t seem to look away. It was _incredibly_ embarrassing.

 She was pretty well-known around the school, especially in the Chem department, since her and her brother were both Chem majors. Barry had had a lot of classes with her, despite being a Bio major, himself. But he saw her around a lot even outside of class because she just seemed to be everywhere he went.

She wasn’t on any sports teams, that Barry knew of, but she was one of the toughest people he knew, physically _and_ mentally. He’d seen her out playing with the Ultimate Frisbee team a couple of times, and when she was his lab partner in the Fall of Sophomore Year, they absolutely breezed through the labs. Every week they worked in perfect synch and near silence, typed up their lab reports, and then Lup would shoulder her bag, offer an absent, “See ya,” and trot away before Barry could even wave goodbye.

Even when he didn’t see her, Barry heard about Lup’s exploits a lot. It was usually something like “Lup and Taako are hanging out with such-and-such out in the woods,” or “Taako and Lup got on the roof of the arts building and started throwing acorns at people and cackling,” but he only ever really paid attention to the Lup part of people’s conversations. Taako was an okay guy, even if he was a little mischievous. But Lup was just plain awesome, and boy, did she know it.

Now, in their Junior year of college, Barry pretty much just tried to avoid drawing her attention for fear that if she looked at him for too long, he’d forget what he was supposed to be doing and just stare at her in awe.

 

Once their first class let out, Lup looked up just in time to see Barry disappearing through the doorway. Until recently, Lup had thought Barry just always bolted out of classes like his pants were on fire, since that was her entire experience with him. Then, over the summer, Taako had informed her that Barry _only_ did that in classes she was in.

“Wow,” Taako remarked, lifting his messenger bag off the desk. “Seriously, Lup, what did you _do_ to him?”

“I never did anything!” Lup replied. “I mean, not that I know of.”

“You sure?” Taako headed for the door, grinning. A couple of people scrambled out of his way, as they always did whenever the twins went anywhere. They were pretty much a set; the times the weren’t together were few and far between. Usually their separation had to do with class schedules, since, although they were both Chem majors, Taako was taking some Theater classes. It fed his dramatic side, and he loved the attention. Lup, almost as dramatic as her brother, got her fix of adoring fans by hopping club sports. She’d gone through Ultimate Frisbee (cool), Fencing (too many rules but gave her an even nicer butt than she already had), and Humans vs Zombies (anyplace she got to shoot people with Nerf guns was great). They both had a good number of fans, judging by how many drunk people came up and spouted admiration for them at the big campus parties. At first Lup had thought Barry was one of those groupies, but since he never showed up to parties, she really had no way to be sure. She’d wondered once or twice if maybe she’d made him feel as if she disliked him somehow, which would be a shame if it were true. Although he was a _huge_ nerd, he seemed like a sweet enough guy.

 

As the twins stepped out of the building, a shadow immediately fell over them. Lup squinted up at one of the only people who seemed immune to her and her brother’s awesomeness: A big, friendly jock named Magnus. She wasn’t really sure what he was studying, but he was on the rugby team and he was about as wide as both the twins standing shoulder-to-shoulder.

“Hey, man,” Taako said, high-fiving Magnus. “What’s up?”

“Yeah, I’m just asking around to see if anyone can bring food to the party Friday night.”

“Oh, we’re having a party?” Taako replied, sounding surprised, but just barely.

“We’ve talking about it for the last, like, three days, Taako.”

“Oh, okay.” Taako shrugged. “Is it at our place?”

“Nah, not after the cops showed up last time when Robbie broke out the good stuff. We’re going out in the woods and setting up a bonfire. Easier to scatter.”

“Gotcha.” Taako nodded. “Who’s gonna be there?”

“Merle’s coming, and Carey said she’ll bring Killan so I can have an arm-wrestling rematch.” Magnus cracked his knuckles, grinning. He’d never beaten Killian before, but that didn’t stop him from trying. “You guys can bring whoever you want, but we’re trying to keep it kinda small.”

“Alright, then.” Taako nodded. “See you there, Magnus.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Most updates aren't going to be this close to each other, but I wanted to get this fic rolling a little, since the first chapter was so short.

This being the first week of classes, the club fair was that Friday. Lup went to scope out any new sports clubs, and Taako went because Lup was going. She had a feeling he also wanted to passively intimidate the Freshmen. Which, they did. The newbies seemed to instinctively clear out for them. Taako’s fashionista outfit and model walk might have had something to do with it. Lup was just wearing sweatpants, a crop top, and sneakers as she strode along at Taako’s side, surveying the tables lining the halls of the Student Center.

There were a few new tables, but not too many. She saw that the Quiddich Club was back up; it had disbanded their Freshman year. She had no desire to run around a field with a broom, though. Taako showed brief interest in the Living Art club, but she could tell he wasn’t really listening to the President’s spiel. The look of hope in the young woman’s eyes made Lup feel a little bad for her, and after a minute, Lup took pity and dragged Taako away.

They were making their way through the hall with the science clubs when they noticed Magnus sitting at a table, waving at them. They approached, and when they saw what he was tabling for, Lup guffawed.

“Magnus!” Taako looked between his friend and the pieces of machinery spread out on the table. “They let you back into Robotics Club? After what happened last year?”

“They didn’t have enough people to keep the club going without me,” Magnus said proudly. “I’m the Vice President.”

Lup nodded. “So, you do absolutely nothing?”

“I do absolutely nothing,” Magnus confirmed. “But they let me take apart old stuff.”

“Nice.” Taako nodded. “We might come back around if we get the time,” Taako said. “All else fails, see you tonight.”

“Yeah!” Magnus sat up. “Bring booze!”  
          “Will do.” The twins set off again. They reached the end of the science clubs, then the short section of arts clubs, before they reached the miscellaneous stuff like the Video Game club and HvZ and… Lup squinted at a new table with a big purple banner. “Paranormal Club?” she read off the banner.

Abruptly, Taako halted and grabbed her arm. She glanced back and saw him staring down the hall, wide-eyed. She followed his gaze past the Paranormal Club, to a student browsing the club tables. He had to be new, since there was no way the twins had just missed seeing him the last two years. And he looked way too comfortable to be a Freshman; he was most likely a transfer. He was tall and strikingly handsome, with shoulder-length dreadlocks tied back from his face. He wore dark jeans, a white t-shirt, and a fitted black jacket. Real “Business Casual” sort of look.

Taako whistled appreciatively. “Oh, _man,_ I’d like to get some of that.”

Lup looked back at the new guy, who had stopped at the Paranormal Club’s table and asked a question. The guy sitting behind it sat up and excitedly began his spiel. The guy with the dreads nodded, looking interested.

Lup eyed her brother. “Seriously? _Him?_ ”

Taako shrugged. “What, like you don’t believe in ghosts?”

“I wouldn’t join a _club_ about them,” Lup replied, eying the transfer student. He was writing his name down on the club list. The guy running the table looked ecstatic. “Come on, Taako, _really?_ ”

“Really, really.” He was grinning. “I mean, look at him!”

“Not my type,” Lup said breezily, turning and trotting away. Taako followed her out of habit, but she could already see the gears turning in his head as he began calculating how he was going to get this guy to go out with him.

“You don’t even know his name,” Lup pointed out.

Taako shrugged. “Well, there are easy ways to fix that.”

As Lup started to reply, she spotted a familiar figure in a red hoodie down the hall. She slowed, her attention inexplicably drawn to Barry as he stood talking to someone at one of the science tables. As she watched, he sheepishly laughed at something the other person had said. His ears had turned pink, and it was… actually kind of cute. She found herself smiling, just a little.

“Hey, Lulu?” Taako was smirking. “Weren’t you _just_ saying something about my taste in guys?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she told him, turning away. “Come on, we need to get lunch before the dining hall closes.”

 

But Barry stayed on her mind for the rest of the day. Not enough to distract her, or anything, but whenever she had an idle moment, her thoughts returned to him. It wasn’t like she hadn’t thought about him before, but up til now she had always done so briefly. She usually had so many other things going on that Barry didn’t make it very high on her list of priorities. Now, though…

She was still mulling it over as she and Taako left her suite’s common room to head to the party that night. And she was prepared to let Barry drop from her thoughts completely for the duration of the party, but then, halfway to the woods, she spotted him again.

From a distance, she wasn’t sure what made her think the lonely figure on the bench was Barry. Something about his hair, maybe, or his posture. He was sitting with his back to them on a bench in the echo circle behind the student center, with his head tilted back.

“Barry?” she said aloud, interrupting something Taako was saying to her. Taako looked surprised and affronted, but Lup ignored him, trotting ahead. The person on the bench hadn’t moved. That _was_ him, wasn’t it? “Barry!” she repeated.

He quickly sat up and turned towards her voice, and sure enough, it was Barry. When he saw her, he leaped to his feet. “Lup!” he said, his voice shooting up nearly an octave. He flushed and cleared his throat. “Hi. Sorry, I didn’t—I wasn’t paying attention.”

“What are you doing out here?” she asked as she reached him. “Were you asleep or something?”

“No! No, no no.” Barry glanced nervously at Taako as Lup’s brother trotted up to them, eying Barry speculatively. “I was just—I was…” Barry looked embarrassed. “I was looking at the stars.”

Taako arched an eyebrow. “How come?”

“Uh…” Barry stalled for a moment without meeting her eyes. Finally he looked down and mumbled, “It’s… what I do when I have nothing better to do.”

Lup studied him for the space of a heartbeat, and then made a snap decision. “You want to come to a party?” she asked.

Barry and Taako both looked at her in surprise. “What?” Barry asked.

“Me and Taako are heading to a party,” Lup explained, nodding at her brother. “More like a small gathering of friends, really. If you have nothing better to do, then do you want to come?”

“Oh.” Barry blinked quickly. “I—I don’t know,” he said, his face going a little redder. “I mean, thank you, but I don’t—I don’t do parties very well…”

Taako stepped over to throw an arm around his shoulders. “Come on, Barry,” he said with enthusiasm that made Lup suspicious of his motives. “Just give it a try. We don’t bite, usually.”

Barry nervously leaned away from Taako, but his eyes returned to Lup, as if asking her for permission to refuse. He looked like he _really_ didn’t want to come with them now.

“We’re not going to force you to come with us,” Lup said, making hard eye contact with Taako as she spoke. Her brother seemed to get the hint immediately, but he still took his sweet time letting Barry go. Once Taako had released his captive, Lup turned her full attention to Barry. “It’s not like you have to come,” she reiterated. “We just thought we’d invite you along.”

Barry hesitated for a long moment, and she could tell he was weighing his options. At last, he side-eyed Taako, and then slowly nodded. “…All right,” he said. “I mean, yeah, I’ll—I’ll come along. Where are we going?”

“The woods,” Lup replied at the same time as Taako said, “So glad you _deign_ to come with us.” Barry flushed again, but Lup smacked her brother’s arm.

“Ignore him,” she told Barry. “Come on, we’ll show you.”

By the time they got there, the party was in full swing. The fire was three layers high log-cabin style, contained in a fire pit. Around it sat a circle of logs and a few folding chairs. Beyond the fire, at a plastic folding table, Magnus was arm-wrestling Killian, the captain of the girls’ rugby team. Carey stood behind her girlfriend, cheering her on, while Merle shouted encouragement at Magnus and waved a bottle in one fist.

Taako stepped into the firelight and struck a pose with both arms out and one hip jutting out to the side. “The party has arrived!” he announced. The outburst surprised Magnus, and when he looked toward the source, Killian saw her opportunity and slammed his hand down on the tabletop.

Carey shouted, “ _YES!_ ” as Magnus and Merle exclaimed in dismay. Killian pumped her fists in the air in victory, and Carey threw her arms around her and kissed her hard on the side of the head.

“I want a rematch!” Magnus protested, putting his hand up again. “Taako distracted me!”

“One match per day, that was the deal!” Killian got to her feet. “Hey, Taako. Hey, Lup.” Then her eyes flicked to Barry, who had stepped up on Taako’s other side and was nervously watching the others. “Who’s this?”

“Lup’s idea,” Taako replied, striding over to grab a bottle of bright blue cocktail out of a six-pack on the ground.

“This is Barry,” Lup told the others. “Barry, this is Merle, Magnus, and Carey and Killian.” She looked around. “Where’s Noelle?”

“She couldn’t make it. She has a paper due at midnight,” Killian explained. “Well, Barry, nice to meet you. Pull up a log. There’s marshmallows in the bag.” She gestured to a backpack near the fire. “You have to get your own sticks, though.”

“Nice.” As everyone else grabbed drinks and started talking, Lup stepped over a log and shook her phone to turn on the flashlight. “Barry, you want a marshmallow stick?” she asked over her shoulder.

He jumped a little. “Uh—yeah. Yes. Please. Thanks.”

“All right.” She searched through the underbrush until she found a couple of suitable marshmallow-roasting sticks. “Here you go,” she said, returning to the fire and handing one to Barry. He thanked her and stuck a marshmallow on the end.

Lup sat down on a log and held her marshmallow over the fire. Barry remained standing, though. He was stiff as a board, plainly uncomfortable.

“You can sit down,” she told him. When he only looked at her, she patted the log next to her. “Come on, the log’s dry and stuff.”

Barry hesitated, and then sat down.

Across from them, Merle took a seat on another log. “So… Barry, right?” he asked. “Haven’t I seen you around? You’re Bio, right?”

Barry nodded. “Are you a Bio major, too?”

“Yeah.” Merle grinned. “Botany focus. What about you?”

“I… haven’t decided yet.” Barry fiddled with his marshmallow stick.

“Better decide fast.” Merle took a swig from his drink.

“Uh-huh,” Barry mumbled, looking at the ground shifting his feet.

“Your marshmallow’s on fire,” Lup told him.

He yelped and pulled it out of the flames, quickly blowing on it to put it out. It wasn’t too badly burned, thankfully, so he pulled it off the stick and ate it. Lup took her perfectly browned marshmallow off the fire, studying Barry out of the corner of her eye. His knee was bobbing, a sign she knew meant he was nervous. It was obviously going to take some work to get him to loosen up. Luckily, while a lot of her friends were idiots, they were friendly idiots. This probably wasn’t going to take long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Drink responsibly, kids.
> 
> (This party is based on the best parties I've been to, arm wrestling included. They were all pretty small.)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Julia's in this one! And there's more Blupjeans fluff because of course there is! 
> 
> On a side note, I'm... kind of sick of seeing fics where people get totally blackout drunk every time they drink at all? Don't do that, guys. It's not how this is supposed to work.

Two hours later, music was pumping out of someone’s Bluetooth speaker and pretty much everyone was some degree of drunk. Merle acted like normal, but he smelled like alcohol. Carey was red-faced and giggling, leaning on Killian’s shoulder while Killian offered her a water bottle. Alcohol normally made Taako flirty, but since there was nobody here for him to flirt with, he was deep in conversation with Magnus, who’d had enough beers to turn into a louder version of his usual boisterous self. Barry sat with them, still completely sober but thoroughly engrossed in whatever they were talking about.

Lup sat swishing her third can of beer around and enjoying the general atmosphere. She felt warm, and her eyelids were a little heavier than usual, but that was it. She’d built up a pretty high alcohol tolerance from numerous sports club parties.

After another minute or two of watching Barry talk with Magnus and Taako, Lup got up and wandered over. “Move,” she told her brother, who scooted half off the chair, wobbled a little, and then regained his balance. She sat down next to him.

“Hey, Lup,” Magnus said abruptly, “you and Taako two should, like, dress up as each other for Halloween some year.”

“How do you know we haven’t already?” Taako asked.

Magnus stared at him, dumbstruck. As Lup laughed, she noticed Barry laughing, too. His face was flushed from the fire, and he’d taken off his hoodie at some point, leaving him in a gray t-shirt with, _I can’t, I have Lab_ printed across the back. The nerd was wearing a Bio shirt from the school store. It was kind of endearing.

“Lup?”

It came to her attention that Taako had asked her something. “Sorry, what?” she asked.

“I said, wouldn’t Barry and Magnus look, like, _exactly_ alike if Magnus wore glasses?” Taako gestured to them. “Right? There’s not that much of a difference.”

Magnus was grinning and he had an arm wrapped around Barry, pinning the smaller guy’s arms to his sides. Barry was laughing, but he seemed to be getting a little short of breath; Lup figured she should get him out of that as quickly as possible. 

She pretended to think carefully for a second. “No, I don’t think that would work. Barry’s way cuter than Magnus.”

It was the first thing that came to mind, and mostly intended to razz Magnus. And the effect was immediate: Taako cackled, Magnus gasped in indignation, and Barry blushed all the way down to the collar of his shirt.

“What?” Magnus said incredulously, releasing his captive and sitting forward. “No, he’s not!” He turned and called over his shoulder, “Hey, Carey! Barry’s not cuter than me, is he?”

She took a drink from her water bottle. “Neither of you are my type,” she said, bumping Killian affectionately with her shoulder, “but Barry’s _way_ cuter than you. I mean, look at him!” She gestured to Barry, whose shoulders crept up to his ears. The look on his face was somewhere between a flattered smile and a terrified grimace.

“The ayes have it,” Taako said, sitting back in his chair and grinning with satisfaction.

 Magnus turned to argue his case with Taako, leaving Barry and Lup to talk. “So,” she said, “enjoying the party so far?”

Barry slowly nodded. His face was still a little red. “It’s… a good first party, I guess.”

Lup straightened. “This is your _first party?_ You never even went to the big campus-wide ones?”

“Well, I’ve been to _those,_ ” Barry amended. “But I only go for five or ten minutes. But I don’t have any friends who are really the partying type, so…” He shrugged.

“Geez. Well, I’m pretty sure you’d be welcome with us anytime. I need to ask everyone else before I add you to the group chat, but… I have your number, don’t I?”

Barry blinked. “Yeah. I mean, unless you deleted it.”

“Nah. I don’t delete contacts.” She did, in fact, delete contacts when she stopped needing them. But she wasn’t about to tell Barry how many times she’d pulled up the old chat from when they were lab partners—all just dry _Hey can we meet at 6 to finish the lab?_ and _sure that works_ —and stared at it, wishing she had some reason to chat him up again.

Well, here was a reason.

“Cool.” Lup grinned, and all of a sudden she found herself very aware of her posture. She was sitting how she always did, with one arm thrown over the back of the chair and one ankle up on her knee. And now that she thought about it, Barry wasn’t sitting how she’d always seen. He usually looked like he was trying to appear smaller than he was. He looked… comfortable.

As she studied him, Lup realized that Barry was watching her, too. “What?” she asked.

“What?” he repeated, blinking. “I—I thought you were going to say something. You were staring at me.”

“Sorry.” Lup took her ankle off her knee and made herself focus on the fire. “Wandered off for a second. But, like I was saying. As far as I’m concerned, you’re invited to these. Magnus seems like he’s taken a liking to you, at least.”

As she finished speaking, Carey and Killian got up. “We’re gonna head out,” Killian said.

Taako waved without turning around. “Have fun!”

 "Yeah, have fun,” Magnus agreed, and that was when Lup noticed he was holding another drink, which was already almost empty.

 “Oh, geez,” she said.

"What’s wrong?” Barry asked, sitting up and watching as Magnus finished chugging the bottle and announced, “And _that’s it for me tonight!_ ”

“You should’ve said that two drinks ago,” Lup told him. “How are you even going to find your way out of the woods when you’re this trashed?”

“Oh.” Magnus frowned. “I didn’t think about that. Maybe I’ll head out before it kicks in.”

“You’ll trip and fall on your face before you can make it out of the trees,” Lup replied, getting to her feet. “Come on, big guy. We’ll walk you.”

Taako snorted. “Uh, who’s _we,_ Lulu?”

“I guess _I’ll_ walk you, then,” Lup said pointedly, but then Barry shot to his feet.

“I’ll come,” he volunteered. “I mean, if that’s all right.”

Lup only hesitated for a split second. “Yeah, sure. Come on.”

Together they got out of the woods in about five minutes, which left ten or fifteen before that last beer hit Magnus. She knew from experience that he was pretty okay up to a point, but if he went one beer over it, he went from loud and friendly to loud and dopey. Best to get him to his room as fast as possible and make sure he got some water.

They headed for Magnus’s dorm as fast as they could, which wasn’t all that fast, because it was on the other side of campus, a twenty-minute walk once they got out of the woods. Soon enough, Magnus started getting wobbly. “Whoops,” he mumbled as he tripped over a cobblestone for the third time. “M’legs feel real weird,” he announced loudly.

“Keep your voice down,” Lup hissed. “It’s one in the morning!”

“Is it?” Barry asked from Magnus’s other side.

“Last I checked.” Lup glanced around. There weren’t a lot of people out—most of the partiers were either at their own parties, or recovering from them—but she did spot one figure on the path ahead of them. The young woman had stopped and turned when Magnus spoke earlier, and was peering down the path at them.

“Magnus?” the young woman called, and Lup recognized her immediately.

So did Magnus. “Julia?” he shouted back. Lup instinctively shushed him again.

Julia, Magnus’s girlfriend, trotted back down the path towards them. “I _thought_ that was your voice,” she said. “Hey, Lup. Hey…” She trailed off when she spotted Barry. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I know you.”

Lup spoke up. “This is Barry,” she said. “He was helping me walk Magnus home.”

Julia smiled wearily up at Magnus. “You’re going to have a horrible hangover in the morning,” she told him.

“Sorry,” he slurred. “Didn’t mean to.”

Julia propped her hands on her hips and shook her head. To Lup and Barry she said, “I’ll take him from here. Thanks for getting him this far.”

“You’re sure?” Barry asked. “We don’t mind walking him all the way back, if it’s a lot of trouble for you.”

Julia looked him over with new interest. “It's nice of you to offer, but no, we’ll be okay. Right, Magnus?” she asked, taking his hand.

“Yeah, we’ll be fine,” he agreed. He paused, and then abruptly he seemed to think of something. He said, “Hey Julia,” and then he giggled and told her, “Hey, hey, hey, Jules.” Then he put his head back and sang, “ _Hey, Jude…_ ”

“Shh, Magnus,” she told him. “You’ll wake people up. Come on, let’s get you inside.”

“Oh.” Magnus lowered his voice. “Okay.” As Julia led him away, he whispered loudly, “You’re really pretty. You know you’re really pretty?”

Julia giggled. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He stumbled a couple of steps in silence. “I like you a lot,” he told Julia.

She swung his hand a little. “I like you a lot, too.”

“Aww, thanks!”

By that point, they reached the corner of a building. Julia gave one last wave to Barry and Lup before they turned the corner and were out of sight. Which left Lup and Barry standing by themselves near the Science building.

“Well,” said Barry, “now what?”

Lup looked at him and weighed her options. They could head back to the party, but that was kind of a walk, and she was ready to get some sleep. But on the other hand, heading back to the party meant hanging out with Barry some more, which seemed like a pretty even trade-off…

Barry yawned. Lup took that as a cue. “I think I’m going to head home,” she said. “What about you?”

“Me, too,” Barry said.

“All right.” Lup turned and started off towards her dorm. To her surprise, Barry came with her. She’d thought he still lived in the same dorm as Magnus, which was in a different direction than hers. But she didn’t question it. They walked in silence that wasn’t quite comfortable, but wasn’t awkward, either.

Too quickly, they reached her dorm, and she slowed to a halt. “See you around, Barry,” she told him as she unlocked the front door to the dorm.

“Yeah,” Barry said. “See you around.” He trotted backwards a few steps and turned to go, but Lup stopped him.

“Wait, isn’t your dorm this way?”

“Oh.” He turned to face her. “No. I just—you know, thought you… shouldn’t have to walk home by yourself. At night.” She just stared at him. He started blushing again. “By yourself,” he repeated. “Y’know. I’d be worried about you. Sorry. I shouldn’t’ve—sorry. Bye.” And he turned and jogged away. She could hear him muttering to himself once he thought he was out of earshot: _Stupid, stupid, stupid! She can take care of herself! Stupid!_

“Barry,” she called after him.

He stopped and turned again. He was so far away she couldn’t see him all that well, but she could still see the tense set of his shoulders.

“Thank you,” she said. “That was sweet of you.”

“Oh.” He visibly startled. “Uh, yeah. A-anytime.”

She waved goodbye again. He waved back, and turned to walk away at a much more cheerful clip than before. Lup stepped inside, but before the door closed behind her, she heard Barry give a shout of happy laughter up at the night sky. She grinned, imagining him throwing his fists up in the air as he walked, and then headed back to her room.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, drink responsibly. Don't be like Magnus.
> 
> \------  
> NO BETA WE LIVE LIKE COLLEGE STUDENTS  
> (That shirt Barry's wearing is an actual shirt available at my school)

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr at [SeveralSmallHedgehogs!](http://severalsmallhedgehogs.tumblr.com/)


End file.
